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Now more than ever, Samsung’s Galaxy S+ phones are becoming eerily similar to the Note series. The Note used to be Samsung’s way of touting all of the latest and greatest tech it had to offer, and while this is still the case, the same can be said for this year’s Galaxy S9+.

Samsung needs more than just the S Pen to make the Note 9 stand out from its own phones and the rest of the competition, and luckily, all signs are pointing to something exciting for this year’s release. Here’s what we know so far!

July 24, 2018 — A leaked image shows off the Note 9 in three colors

Another day, another leak from Evan Blass. Last week, we saw the front and back of the blue Galaxy Note 9, but with today’s leaked image we see the phone in three colors — black, blue, and brown.

It looks like the blue Note 9 will be the only model with the yellow S Pen teased in Samsung’s official event invite. The other two will have color-matched S Pens, all of which look fantastic.

July 17, 2018 — A new render shows the Note 9 once again

We already have a pretty good idea as to what the Galaxy Note 9 will look like, but thanks to a new render, the picture’s now clearer than ever before.

Evan Blass took to Twitter today with the above photo. It shows the Note 9 in a blue paint job with a blue and yellow S Pen to accompany it, and the combo looks downright fantastic.

July 16, 2018 — Galaxy Note 9 spotted out in the wild with Samsung’s CEO

Not too long after DJ Koh spilled some beans about the Note 9’s S Pen features, he’s back in the news once more as he was recently spotted using the phone during the media event mentioned below.

Koh can be seen using the Note 9 in the above photo, and while most of the device is hidden, we can confirm that it is, in fact, the Note 9 due to the placement of the rear camera and fingerprint sensor.

We’ve seen one collection of renders for the Note 9 so far (pictured above), and save for the fingerprint sensor being moved below the rear camera sensor, the phone’s shaping up to be nearly identical to last year’s model.

As such, we can expect a large Infinity Display with slim bezels, an all-glass back, and a 3.5mm headphone jack. Samsung’s event teaser suggests that we’ll get at least one bright yellow color option, but I’m still crossing my fingers the Galaxy S9’s Burgundy Red gets a wide release on the Note 9 🤞.

What specs can we look forward to?

Samsung’s Galaxy Note phones are always home to some of the best specs around, and the Note 9 shouldn’t be any different.

Based on the current rumor mill and what we’ve seen from other 2018 flagships, here’s what we think we’ll see this year.

The S Pen has always been one of the biggest draws to the Galaxy Note phones, and this year with the Note 9, we’re expecting Samsung to give the accessory one of the biggest updates we’ve seen in years.

One of the biggest changes this time around is that the Note 9 S Pen is rumored to come with Bluetooth. On one hand, this means the S Pen will need to have a battery and be charged somehow. Although we can’t confirm this, it’s likely Samsung will design a system that allows the S Pen to charge up while it’s inside the Note 9.

On a more exciting note, Bluetooth could allow for the S Pen to be useful even when it’s not in direct contact with the Note 9. Its button could act as a camera shutter, slide-show clicker, give you better alerts when it’s away from your phone, and more.

There have also been hints at some sort of gaming-specific features, but it’s unclear how exactly these will pan out.

When will the Galaxy Note 9 be released?

The Galaxy Note 9 will be announced on August 9, 2018, at an Unpacked event in New York City.

We can expect retail availability to come in a 1-2 week time frame after the announcement, if any previous launches are any indication.

How much will the Galaxy Note 9 cost?

Pricing for the Note series has steadily been going up each year, as has the majority of the smartphone industry.

The Galaxy Note 8 costs $950 unlocked, and I’d expect the Note 9 to cost either the same or slightly more. Apple proved with the iPhone X that people aren’t afraid to shell out $1000+ for a new smartphone, and I don’t consider it to be out of the question for Samsung to follow suit with the Note 9 – especially if it adopts newer technologies like an in-display fingerprint sensor.

We’re a virtual company made up of tech experts from across the globe. We live and breathe Android phones, and use nearly every one to find the best budget picks for you.

The Motorola Moto G6 currently offers the best combination of performance, features and value. It overshadows the competition with its wide availability, fast performance, and support for nearly every network in the world, beating out a number of rivals from Nokia and Honor.

A winner in every respect, from the modern design to the dual camera setup and excellent performance, the Moto G6 represents the pinnacle of Motorola’s dominance in the budget phone space.

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Who should buy this phone

Not everyone needs a big, expensive Android phone — especially if they’re looking to buy it outright. At $249 (or less from Amazon’s Prime Exclusive program), the Moto G6 provides 90% of what flagship devices offer at a third of the price. This phone is for anyone coming from an older budget phone, or just looking to simplify and downsize, without losing the core Android experience.

Yes. As of July 2018, the Moto G6 is brand new and will continue to be supported and updated by Motorola for two years or more. And because it’s a budget phone already, the price is unlikely to drop dramatically over the course of its life, so anyone looking for an inexpensive Android phone, now is a great time to pick up the Moto G6.

7 reasons to buy

Great build quality and design for the price
Excellent main rear camera
Good battery life
Compatible with all major U.S. and international carriers
Moto Display adds tremendous value
USB-C fast charging
Available as Amazon Prime exclusive
2 reasons not to buy

Moto G line isn’t known for swift software updates
Lacks NFC
Most people don’t need to spend a lot on a phone anymore

Flagship phones like the Pixel 2 and Galaxy S9 series can be up into the $700 or $800 range, and many of the features that come with them, like wireless charging or waterproofing, aren’t fundamental to a device’s enjoyment. They’re bonus features.

Increasingly, you’re paying so much more for those bonus features that the Law of Diminishing Returns comes into play. At its core, the Moto G6 offers 90% of phones double and triple its cost. A few years ago, that delta would have been a lot more, but the prices of budget components have dropped so much, and retained so much of their more expensive counterparts’ characteristics, that it’s often not worth recommending those expensive flagships anymore.

The Moto G6 and its other budget counterparts on this list have awesome, high-resolution touchscreens, reliable software, and great cameras. Some features, like NFC, drive up manufacturing costs, so you have to weigh whether you need NFC-enabled features like mobile payments. And the Moto G6 also lacks the same graphical power as its more expensive competitors, but most games play without issue, even at medium or high settings, because Android games are designed to function on hardware of all sizes and prices.

The Moto G6 has all the major features you need from a modern smartphone, and the ones it lacks you can easily live without.

Motorola has had five years of practice making the Moto G line into a budget powerhouse; when it designed the first Moto G back in 2013, it eschewed expensive materials like metal and glass and focused instead on the core experience. Starting in 2016, Motorola began finding ways to add important features like fingerprint sensors, and last year, in 2017, the company transitioned the Moto G line to metal. With the sixth-gen lineup, that includes the cheaper Moto G6 Play and more expensive Moto G6 Plus, it’s back to a combination of plastic and glass, it’s a nice visual improvement over previous models.

At the same time, Motorola understands its audience, which is why it added a dual camera setup to the Moto G6. The second camera adds depth effects like portrait mode without sacrificing the excellent pedigree of the main 12MP sensor.

Finally, if you’re in the U.S., the Moto G6 is one of the few sub-$300 phones to work on all four U.S. carriers, and it’s even sold at directly at a couple of carriers, another advantage of Motorola’s long-standing relationship with companies like Verizon.

Alternatives to the Moto G6

Motorola isn’t the only player in town when it comes to cheap phones. In recent years, Honor, a subsidiary of Huawei, and HMD Global, which has reinvigorated the Nokia brand, have kept Motorola on its toes in the budget space. Then there’s Alcatel, which continues to bring down the cost of phone ownership with its new Android Go-powered devices.

Nokia’s lineup of inexpensive Android phones has received an impressive refresh for 2018, and the $250-ish Nokia 6.1 is the best of the lot. It’s made of a single piece of Series 6 aluminum, which should hold up better than the Moto G6’s glass back, and its Snapdragon 630 processor is quite a bit more powerful. It also runs Android One, which means the updates come directly from Google, so they’ll be more timely, and the Nokia 6.1 will receive Android P before the Moto G6.

Everyone knows the Nokia brand, so we were cautiously optimistic when HMD Global, which is made up of a bunch of former Nokia engineers and executives, debuted a full line-up of Android-powered phones. With its second-generation lineup, which includes the inexpensive Nokia 2.1 and beautifully-designed Nokia 7 Plus, the company has hit it out of the park.

We love the Nokia 6.1 because it hits the right sweet spot between performance and value. On the other hand, the phone only works on T-Mobile and AT&T in the U.S., and doesn’t have the same caliber of camera as the Moto G6. And given that it’s running Android One, it lacks some of the value-added software features like Moto Display that we love on the Moto G6.

A larger, more battery-focused version of the Moto G6 is the Moto E5 Plus, which has a massive 5,000mAh battery inside. This phone is sold at carriers in the U.S., including T-Mobile, Sprint, Cricket, and Boost Mobile, so you can’t buy it outright, but it’s also one of the best values in smartphones today. Featuring a 6-inch HD screen and a 12MP camera, the Moto E5 Plus is a fantastic option if you’re going the carrier route.

If you’re locked into the carrier ecosystem, or want to get your phone with a low-cost financing option, getting the Moto E5 Plus from T-Mobile is likely your best bet. At just $9/month for 24 months, the $225 phone is huge and powerful, and retains the same excellent software and camera experience of the Moto G6. Its rear fingerprint sensor is built into the phone’s logo, too, for some extra style.

Another great option in the budget space is the Honor 7X, which features a beautiful, tall 5.93-inch 18:9 screen, a really powerful Kirin processor and, best of all, a 3,340mAh battery, all for $199. Honor, which is owned by Huawei, is able to keep its costs low because it sells more phones than Motorola and Nokia combined. The Honor 7X lacks the nuanced software of either of the above recommendations, but its metal frame covers some really powerful internals.

Honor is one of those companies that, because of Huawei’s problems in the U.S., hasn’t really received its fair share of coverage, and that’s a shame. The Honor 7X is a tremendous phone, especially for its $199 price, and there’s very little it does badly. In other markets, the more expensive Honor 10, takes everything we love about the Honor 7X and improves upon it, while U.S. customers can also enjoy the confusingly-named Honor View10, which shares a lot of the Honor 10’s best traits.

No one thought it was possible, but you can now buy a great Android phone for just under $100. The Alcatel 1X is the latest in the company’s budget lineup, and it’s the first to run Android Oreo Go Edition, Google’s suite of apps and software optimizations to make Android run well on inexpensive hardware.

With the 1X, you lack a lot of the amenities of even the $250 Moto G6 — it’s all plastic, for starters, and only has 1GB of RAM — but if all you need is a basic smartphone to make calls, browse Instagram, and take a few photos, the Alcatel 1X is a fantastic option.

Bottom line

There’s no shortage of awesome Android phones these days, whether you want to spend more than $700, less than $300, or even $100. The above phones represent the best of a set limitation — that of not wanting to overspend on a product that, inevitably, will need to be replaced in a couple of years.

But that’s the beauty of a device that costs a third of what you’d spend on a Galaxy S9 or Pixel 2. It offers 90% of what those phones cost and can be replaced more easily. While you may miss out on some of the more advanced features like waterproofing and wireless charging, and you may not receive as many updates, or for as long, these phones represent a new breed of budget devices you can feel confident in buying. The Moto G6 is the best of the bunch but they are all great in different ways.

Updated July 2018: This guide was updated to add the Moto E5 Plus, which is a great option if you want to buy through a carrier.

Credits — The team that worked on this guide

Andrew Martonik is the Executive Editor, U.S. at Android Central. He has been a mobile enthusiast since the Windows Mobile days, and covering all things Android-related with a unique perspective at AC since 2012. For suggestions and updates, you can reach him at andrew.martonik@androidcentral.com or on Twitter at @andrewmartonik.

Jerry Hildenbrand is Mobile Nation’s Senior Editor and works from a Chromebook full time. Currently he is using Google’s Pixelbook but is always looking at new products and may have any Chromebook in his hands at any time. You’ll find him across the Mobile Nations network and you can hit him up on Twitter if you want to say hey.

Daniel Bader is the Managing Editor of Android Central. As he’s writing this, a mountain of old Android phones is about to fall on his head, but his Great Dane will protect him. He drinks way too much coffee and sleeps too little. He wonders if there’s a correlation.

The Moto X4 is the long-awaited sequel to the Moto X Pure Edition and it’s the best phone you can buy for under $400. It has a striking design, clean software, a great display, and a pretty good pair of cameras on the back.

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Who should buy this phone?

The design of the Moto X4 is just as nice to hold as it is to look at, thanks to its gentle curves, and it’s durable with IP68 water and dust resistance. The software is as close as it gets to stock Android without bearing the Pixel brand (even more so with the Android One variant on Google Fi), but you still get all of Motorola’s useful motion gestures for quickly launching functions like the camera and flashlight.

You won’t get support for Motorola’s extensive collection of Moto Mods like on the Z2 Play, nor is the battery life from its 3,000 mAh cell the best we’ve seen. But the display is terrific, performance with its Snapdragon 630 chipset is smooth and speedy, and its dual cameras can take some really great photos.

The carrier compatibility makes it worth it

There’s something about Motorola’s phones that just scream “versatile.” The Moto X4, like many of the company’s unlocked phones, works on every carrier in the U.S., including Verizon and Sprint, something that’s difficult to come by in this price range.

Is it a good time to buy this phone?

Yes, but only at its discounted price. The Moto X4 was released in October 2017, which puts it in line for a refresh soon. At the same time, Amazon’s discounted price of $260 makes it extremely compelling.

Due for a refresh soon
There are other great phones in this price range

You don’t have to look far to find a bunch of great options under $400. While Motorola clearly has the edge here (you’ll see the Moto G6 & G6 Plus in this list, too), there are lots of other choices to pick from, and they’re all very good.

Sony’s excellent Xperia XA2 Ultra has a 6-inch 1080p panel with slim bezels and a fingerprint sensor on the back. Its Snapdragon 630 platform, 4GB of RAM and 32GB of storage are equal to the Moto X4, but its 3,580mAh battery is ginormous.

Sony may not be super popular in the high-end space these days, but its bread and butter is in the mid-range. The Sony Xperia XA2 Ultra is big and well-designed, and has everything you’d need from a sub-$400 phone. Better yet, the massive battery will definitely last a full day and then some.

If you can buy it, the Moto G6 Plus is an outstanding, affordable phone.

The Moto G6 Plus is basically a taller, skinnier Moto X4. You get a Snapdragon 630 platform, 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage, and a great 12MP rear camera with a secondary sensor that does portrait mode and more.

You can’t go wrong with the Moto G6, which is far better than its $249 price tag would suggest.

The Moto G6 is the best budget phone you can buy, and at $249 it’s way below our $400 budget. With Gorilla Glass 3 on the front and back, a dual camera setup, and a spritely but power-efficient Snapdragon 450 processor, the Moto G6 is beautiful and capable.

Both the Moto G6 and the G6 Plus are cut from the same cloth, but because they are so similar, the G6 Plus is only sold in markets the Moto X4 isn’t available. Yes, it’s confusing, but that’s fine: all you need to know is that you’ll probably be happy with whichever model you like.

The Moto G6 series is a bit more modern-looking than the Moto X4, but neither are better phones overall. If you want a phone with a taller screen, you should choose the G6 or G6 Plus over the Moto X4.

Bottom line

The sub-$400 market is both extremely competitive and a little confusing, but there’s never been more great options readily available, and with the emergence of Android One, you can finally count of getting consistent updates without having to buy a flagship phone straight from Google. The Moto X4 and Sony Xperia XA2 Ultra are both great examples of attractive, affordable phones with premium features like water resistance and fast fingerprint sensors. At the same time, devices like the Moto G6 and G6 Plus redefine what it means to be a top-tier budget device.

But if you have a maximum budget of $400, the Moto X4 is the best phone for you.

Updated August 2018: The Moto X4 is still our best phone under $400, while the Sony Xperia XA2 Ultra is our runner-up, and the Moto G6 Plus is now our non-U.S pick. We’ve replaced the Moto G5 Plus with the Moto G6.

If you’re a heavy business user, there are plenty of reasons to love the Note 9.

The Note series has always been a bit… different. The original Galaxy Note was a behemoth — for the time — aimed squarely at enthusiasts. Compared to that year’s Galaxy S II, the Note brought a bigger screen, more powerful internals, and the now-classic S Pen. Since that time, the Note series has switched between being an enthusiast’s dream and being just a larger Galaxy S phone. In 2018, it looks like Samsung is priming the Note 9 to go back to being an enthusiast-first device.

But just because it’s aimed at the enthusiast crowd doesn’t mean other sectors won’t appreciate the Note 9. Corporate users are a healthy market for Samsung to target, and — unless you’re craving a physical keyboard — there are a few reasons to consider the Note 9 for your business needs!

The Galaxy S9 is no slouch on the inside, but the Note 9 makes some noticeable improvements. It uses the same Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 inside, paired with 6GB of RAM instead of 4GB the smaller S9 comes with. The Note 9 also includes 128GB of internal storage in the base model, while both the S9 and S9+ only include 64GB. All of the phones are expandable with a microSD card, but internal storage is going to be faster and more secure. While Google Docs and PDFs don’t take up a huge amount of space individually, more space for documents is only a good thing. If you need even more space for multitasking prowess, there will also be a 512GB storage/8GB RAM option.

Meanwhile, the Note 9 offers a slightly larger screen than that of the S9+. It’s only a 0.2-inch difference, but more screen real estate is more screen real estate. This does make the Note 9 more unwieldy than smaller phones, but the tradeoff may be worth it for some users. Another thing the larger size allows is a larger battery: 4000mAh on the Note 9 compared to 3500mAh on the S9+.

The Note 9 will also feature the latest and greatest LTE and Wi-Fi radios. This is something most businesses overlook, but being able to connect to a network is one of the most important things mobile workers need their phone to do. If your workers struggle with connectivity when they’re on the go, the Note 9 will be their best chance at staying connected.

The S Pen

The trademark feature of the Note series is the S Pen stylus. When the Note first came out, the S Pen was really only useful for swipe typing, doodling and writing quick notes. But with each new Note phone, the capabilities of the S Pen have grown. This year, Samsung is making a big leap with the inclusion of a Bluetooth radio inside the pen. You’ll be able to use the pen as a presentation clicker, long-press to launch an app of your choice, and set specific actions inside each app. The pen can be used in this “smart” mode for 30 minutes, and 40 seconds inside of its silo will give it a full charge. If the pen does die, it can still be used as a regular capacity S Pen like older models.

Samsung DeX

When DeX debuted with the Galaxy S8, it was a bit… impractical. $150 for a specific dock was a huge barrier to entry, especially if your business is buying a fleet of Galaxy phones. And if you’re already buying a dock, keyboard, mouse, and monitor, it’s not that much more work to just buy a Chromebox for that station as well.

That last part hasn’t really been changed, but DeX has grown in other ways. Apps work a lot better, and they scale to fit monitor screens much better. These are still mobile apps — so you can’t have two Google Docs open at once — but if an employee can do 95% of what they need to from their phone, DeX is a great solution to tackle the other 5%. As for the cost of entry, DeX will now work with any USB-C to HDMI adapter, and Samsung will sell its own adapter. You can use the S-Pen or the phone’s on-screen keyboard for text entry in DeX. Best of all, using DeX won’t lock you out of using the phone’s regular interface. If you’ve already invested in separate keyboards and mice, those will still work just fine.

Samsung Knox

Out of the box, Android phones are perfectly secure enough for consumers. But if you have sensitive business data that employees are carrying with them everywhere, you’ll want a bit of extra protection. Samsung’s Knox system happily offers that protection. In fact, Knox is so secure that recent Galaxy phones were approved for use by the U.S. Department of Defense to handle sensitive military data.

Other considerations

Being a big phone release from the biggest Android manufacturer, the Note 9 will have plenty of third-party accessories like screen protectors, rugged cases and car mounts for your employees to use to keep the phone itself safe. Cases also let your employees personalize their phones, which is a great way to tell everyone’s phone apart.

Of course, not everything about Samsung phones is appealing. The biggest reservation that most businesses will have is the speed of updates. The Note 9 is launching with Android 8.0 Oreo just a few weeks after Android 9 Pie is released. More troubling is the speed of security updates, especially if you buy the phone from a carrier. It’s not uncommon for Galaxy phones to lag a month or two behind Pixel phones when it comes to security updates. While that may not be the end all be all, it’s an important consideration.

What say you?

Would the Note 9 be a good match for your business? Let us know down below!

Samsung Galaxy Tab A 10.5 carries a 10.5 inch TFT display with a resolution of 1920×1200. Surrounding the display are slim bezels. There is no physical home button, fingerprint sensor or iris scanner, so you will have to make do with more traditional PINs and passwords. Powering the tablet is the Snapdragon 450, paired with 3GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage.

Xiaomi partnered with Google over an Android One last year, the Mi A1. The phone combined Xiaomi’s hardware capabilities with the simplicity of Android One, making it one of the best budget phones of 2018.

A year on, Xiaomi is renewing its collaboration with Google to launch two Android One phones. The Mi A2 and Mi A2 Lite feature comprehensive upgrades from the Mi A1, and Xiaomi is set to make both devices available in over 40 markets around the world.

The key difference between both phones — from an aesthetic standpoint — is that the Mi A2 has a standard 18:9 display, with the Mi A2 Lite offering a 19:9 panel with a notch up top. Internally, the Mi A2 is powered by the Snapdragon 660, whereas the A2 Lite is running the now-familiar Snapdragon 625. On the software front, both devices are running Android 8.1 Oreo, and the fact that they’re a part of the Android One platform means they’ll be one of the first phones to pick up the Android P update.

Here’s what you need to know about Xiaomi’s latest Android One phones.

The Mi A2 features a 5.99-inch FHD+ 18:9 display backed by a layer of Gorilla Glass 5. The 2.5D curved glass allows the edges to seamlessly merge into the mid-frame, and the phone also has subtle curves at the back to make it easier to hold.

Xiaomi has been using the Snapdragon 660 platform for over a year now, and the Mi A2 is the latest to feature the chipset. The Snapdragon 660 is notable for being just as fast as flagships SoCs even from just a few generations ago, and it’s safe to say that it is one of Qualcomm’s best in this category.

There’s a 3010mAh battery under the hood, up to 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, Wi-Fi ac, Bluetooth 5.0, and a USB-C port. The camera is where things get interesting: the primary 12MP IMX 376 sensor is mated to a 20MP module with large 2.0um pixels. The front camera also has a similar 20MP sensor with 2.0um pixels, and as just like the Redmi Note 5 Pro, the Mi A2 has an AI-enabled portrait mode.

Xiaomi Mi A2 Lite: Notched display, incredible battery life

The Mi A2 Lite isn’t just a variant of the Mi A2 with toned-down hardware — the phone sports a cutout at the front to accommodate the camera module and the requisite sensors.

Xiaomi has said in the past that it favors the Snapdragon 625 for the chipset’s balance between efficiency and performance. The manufacturer rolled out more than a handful of phones powered by the chipset — including last year’s Mi A1 — so there’s not going to be a performance differential between the A2 Lite and what we saw last year.

Essentially, the Mi A2 Lite has the same underpinnings as its predecessor, albeit with a refreshed design for 2018. However, the one downside is that the A2 Lite has a Micro-USB port, a puzzling choice considering the Mi A1 had a USB-C charging port.

Xiaomi is moving away from the ubiquitous headphone jack in its premium models, but the jack is intact on the budget-focused devices. As such, although the Mi A2 doesn’t have a 3.5mm jack, the A2 Lite has the analog port.

Xiaomi Mi A2/Mi A2 Lite: Pricing and availability

There’s enough differences between the Mi A2 and A2 Lite that Xiaomi is targeting two diverse set of users with its latest Android One phones.

The pricing reflects that as well, with the decked-out version of the Mi A2 running up to $410. The Mi A2 Lite, meanwhile, starts off at $210. Here’s the pricing breakdown for the all variants Xiaomi will have up for sale:

Xiaomi mentions that it will make both devices available in over 40 markets around the world, and we should be hearing more about region-wise availability later this month. Xiaomi is huge in India, so we should see the brand launching both devices in the country shortly.

Given the cost-conscious nature of the Indian market, it’s likely we’ll see the base variant of the Mi A2 Lite debuting at under the $200 price point. Anywhere at the ₹10,999 ($160) figure should make it a great option considering the Redmi Note 5 shares a similar hardware foundation.

As for the Mi A2, the phone directly goes up against the $375 Nokia 7 Plus, so it’ll be interesting to see what price point it slots in.